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Topic: Sigur Ros' first CD (Read 1775 times)

"Von," the Icelandic band's first album, is some seriously GREAT ambient space music. In fact it shouldn't even be filed as a "rock" album. I had heard most of their output after this 1997 debut and thought they were interesting but highly overrated. Von is nothing like the post-indie rock Radioheadish stuff they did after this. How to describe this...if Edgar Froese circa '74/'75 met the cosmic space guitars of Slowdive circa '93/'94, while Pink Floyd circa '71 and Eno circa '83/'84 sat in at the mixing desk, it might have sounded like this. If you go on Amazon and read the reviews, most SR fans didn't seem to care for it as there weren't any "songs", save for one track (and it's the best "song" of anything SR did after this debut). I see Amazon has 30 used copies starting at $6.99. Don't miss this one, it is spectacular!!!

I agree about the vocals, which is why I had a hard time really liking Sigur Ros. But actually the first album "Von" has no male vocals, just some Cocteau Twins/Slowdive like female vocals, and lots of gorgeous female synth choral sounds. There is none of that high-pitched man-boy singing here! "Von" is basically a series of soundscapes with a few structured "songs" but it plays more like an early 70's prog album than an alternative/indie rock thing. This hasn't left my discman player in days...

I attended their live show at Cologne Philharmonic Hall in 2002 and was gobsmacked. Probably the most intense concert I´ve ever been to. Yet I must agree that their style tends to veer towards the "kitsch" and "campy" side of things, and the singer -- although I really enjoyed it on the first two albums -- is becoming more and more of a nuisance. A one-trick pony on vocals...